Study: State a national model for teen justice

Published 9:37 pm, Wednesday, February 27, 2013

HARTFORD -- Arrest and incarceration rates for teens have fallen off sharply, thanks to the state's "raise the age" effort and a series of community collaborations that discourage juvenile crime.

That's the result of a study released Wednesday by the Washington-based Justice Policy Institute that calls Connecticut a national leader in juvenile reforms.

The state's plan of using community-based programs rather than juvenile jails has been cost-effective while cutting sharply into overall crime and incidents of violence, the report said.

The institute said that "a systemwide culture change and major investments in evidence-based services" has overcome "a previously wasteful, punitive, ineffective and often abusive juvenile justice system."

"Credit belongs to Governor Malloy, the advocacy community, Court Support Services, (state) Senator (Toni) Harp and Representative Toni Walker (both D-New Haven), and to the Department of Children and Families staff," Katz said. "Helping children in the community is a solution that we must continue to build upon."

The report found that Arizona, Minnesota, Louisiana and Tennessee all joined Connecticut in cutting youth incarceration by 50 percent or more between 2001 and 2010. For decades, Connecticut and New York were among the few states that treated 16 year olds as adults in the criminal justice system.

In 2007, the General Assembly began a phase-in program to raise the age that juveniles could be prosecuted as adults to 18. It started on Jan. 1, 2010 for 16 year olds and continued with a phase-in on July 1, 2012 for 17 year olds.

"Even before 17 year olds became eligible for juvenile court on July 1, 2012, the new law had enabled 8,325 16 year olds to avoid prosecution and punishment in the adult criminal justice system," the report says.

From 2000 to 2011, the state cut residential commitments from 680 to 216 in 2011. The state closed one of its three youth detention centers -- in New Haven -- and reduced the 18-and-younger population in adult prisons from 403 in January 2007 to 151 in July 2012. "Meanwhile, Connecticut expanded its investment in evidence-based, family-focused adolescent treatment programs from $300,000 in 2000 to $39 million in 2009," the report says.

"The success across these diverse states in reducing the number of youth in confinement shows that there is no reason other states can't halve their populations as well," said Peter Leone, PhD., acting executive director of the Justice Policy Institute. "And the fact that some of the highlighted states made progress without a major realignment in funding means that economic factors should not be an excuse to avoid reform efforts."

Among the state's non-profit agencies, the New Canaan-based Tow Foundation was credited with providing 300 grants totaling $12 million in support of juvenile justice reforms, including advocacy, research and direct services. The nonprofits supplemented the state's $137 million a year in juvenile justice services, programs and facilities.

Emily Tow Jackson, executive director of The Tow Foundation, said she applauds the state's achievements.

"The Tow Foundation has been proud to support our state partners from the legislature, state agencies, direct service providers and the advocacy community as they have worked collaboratively to transform the Connecticut juvenile justice system over the past decade," Jackson said.

"The proof that we have gotten a tremendous return on our investments is that tens of thousands of Connecticut's young people are now benefiting from widespread policy and practice reform."

The report found that the state's traditional population of 15-and-younger youths showed a 48 percent decline in arrests between 2002 and 2011, with violent crime arrests down 51 percent over that period.